Online Learning

Match Education has offered the following two Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) through Coursera.

"SURVIVING YOUR ROOKIE YEAR OF TEACHING"

Participants to date: 34,111

Description: Frustration. Hard Knocks. Sleepless nights. Tears.

Those are just a few of the ways that rookie teachers describe their first year in the profession. And those sentiments have been validated by countless research studies that show that students, on average, learn significantly less when they’re taught by rookies. Unfortunately, many educators believe this is a necessary “rite of passage” – a sort of hazing that one must experience on their path to effective teaching.

We don’t believe that.

Since it began in 2008, the Match Teacher Residency has developed and refined an approach to specifically address the challenges that are unique to the rookie teacher experience. In this four-week course, we’ll explore the three ideas that we've found to contribute radically to success as a rookie teacher.

“COACHING TEACHERS: PROMOTING CHANGES THAT STICK”

Participants to date: 29,000

Description: Teachers face a blizzard of decisions. Scholars estimate that teachers have over 1000 unique exchanges with students every day, most of which are unplanned and require quick decision making. And then there are the myriad daily decision points related to curriculum planning, assessing student work, and interactions with parents and colleagues. Amidst this frenzy, it’s easy for “bad” habits to set in, and hard to break them once they do.

The question then becomes:

How in such a fast-paced environment can coaches and instructional leaders help teachers execute changes in their practice that actually stick?

Effective teacher-coaches are not just knowledgeable about instruction; they’re also highly strategic in their approach to changing teachers’ behaviors. That starts with preparing teachers to receive critical feedback, and then continues with a careful selection of goals and scaffolds to ensure that feedback is implemented with fidelity.

Oftentimes, teacher coaching suffers from a lack of direction, a lack of support, or both. The coach might tell the teacher to “Do X,” but then fail to articulate clear, measurable steps for implementation. Most commonly, coaches can be overly suggestive, telling the teacher “You might do X, Y, and Z, and maybe even A, B, and C, too.” With an already very full plate, this approach leaves the teacher uncertain of what to focus on first, undercutting the likelihood of meaningful change.

Even teacher coaching that’s described as “good” can sometimes fall short of resulting in meaningful change. The coach might see and say the right things, and the teacher might be very appreciative of the feedback. But unless the coaching drives true changes in behavior, the “good” in this case could actually end up being the enemy of effective.

Course participants will be introduced to Match’s key ideas and techniques for coaching teachers with an eye towards creating sustained changes in their practice.